Police Looking for Husband After His Wife's Disappearance

The police said yesterday that they suspected foul play in the
disappearance of a 36-year-old woman from Hillside, N.J., who has
been missing since Monday, and were looking for her estranged husband
in connection with the investigation.

The husband, Gregory Banks Sr., was also last seen Monday afternoon,
sitting in a parked car with his wife, Deanna G. Banks, at the
Hillside elementary school where Ms. Banks worked, Union County
officials said.

Ms. Banks's car was found Tuesday morning with a smashed windshield.

An earring and her broken glasses were discovered nearby.

"We are hoping for the best but fearful of the worst, and the
detectives working feverishly on this case do believe she is the
victim of foul play," Theodore J. Romankow, the Union County
prosecutor, said yesterday.

While Ms. Banks has not been seen or heard from since Monday, Mr.
Banks, 46, of Hillside, did place a call on Tuesday morning to the
local auto repair garage where he worked to say that he was quitting,
said Robert O'Leary, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.

Mr. O'Leary added that this call gave the authorities concern that
Mr. Banks had decided to flee the area.

Investigators said that the couple, who have been married for a year
and a half, were known to have marital problems and did not live
together, having recently separated. Mr. Banks has a child from a
previous relationship, but the couple do not have children together.

Ms. Banks is a program coordinator at the Hillside School District
and was at Calvin Coolidge Elementary School for work on Monday.
School officials were alerted to her absence after she missed two
work-related meetings by Tuesday.

The Hillside police are working around the clock, hoping to find Ms.
Banks, said Detective John Frize of the Hillside Police Department.
The department is asking members of the community to contact it if
they see Mr. Banks, described as a 5-foot-9, 215-pound black man with
a beard, or his 1995 Chevrolet Astro van, which has the New Jersey
license plate MED-43F.